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- All Subjects: Finance
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
- Status: Published
Description
Our project examines The Blackstone Group’s $6.1 billion leveraged buyout of TeamHealth in 2016 in detail, as well as the broader implications of the transaction on the healthcare industry. The transaction was preceded by Blackstone’s initial acquisition of the company in 2005, followed by the company’s subsequent IPO in 2009. Our project first covers the history of the target company and profiles key subsidiaries, with an emphasis on the 2015 $1.6B acquisition of IPC by TeamHealth. We then detail the sources and uses of the transaction and explore Blackstone’s stated transaction rationale. We construct a base case financial model that explores Blackstone’s potential projected internal rate of return based on organic growth and potential synergies with IPC alone and without any further tuck-in acquisitions, as well as an acquisition case model that incorporates several future tuck-in acquisitions. Both cases include a detailed buildout of revenue projections, key income statement and balance sheet drivers (including an analysis of changes in healthcare economics and their impact on our revenue build), and forward-looking assumptions on various items including capital expenditures for the target company. Discounted cash flow analysis and leveraged buyout analysis outputs are detailed and discussed for both the base case and acquisition case. We examine the risks and mitigants associated with the transaction and how they may exacerbate issues in a downside case, namely leverage and public markets-related risks that may affect Blackstone’s strategy. Lastly, we investigate the impact the transaction may have on the broader industry from the patient, payor, and physician perspective.
ContributorsBamford, Maxwell Blake (Co-author) / Jha, Neil (Co-author) / Doughty, Alexander (Co-author) / Leibovit-Reiben, Zachary (Co-author) / Mindlin, Jeff (Thesis director) / Stein, Luke (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The purpose of this thesis was to create a valuation of Spotify (Ticker: SPOT) and estimate a share price for the company. Spotify is one of the largest music streaming services in the world, currently operating in 79 markets globally with a subscriber base of over 100 million people. Spotify initially offered April 3, 2018 at $132 per share and sees a huge amount of financial assets on their balance sheet due to continued investment. As a newly established high-growth company, Spotify has enjoyed a 30% average revenue growth year over year from 2014 to 2019. Although Spotify’s reach is quite large, the company is dwarfed by competitors such as Apple, Google, and Amazon in the extremely competitive music streaming industry. Within this paper, we first analyze the competitive landscape that makes up the music streaming industry. Once a baseline understanding of the music streaming industry has been reached, we turn the focus more directly onto Spotify through examining Spotify’s position within the market as well as the company’s current strategic goals and objectives. We then forecasted Spotify’s financial statements forward and created a residual income model (RIM) based on Spotify’s financial statements. As was previously stated, the purpose of this model was to arrive at a share price for Spotify that we believe accurately reflects its value and compare that with its current market trading price. After successfully accomplishing this goal, we conducted a comprehensive final analysis and offered Spotify recommendations based on the model as well and its output.
ContributorsRice, Ian (Co-author) / Nagele, Benjamin (Co-author) / Samuels, Janet (Thesis director) / Orpurt, Steven (Committee member) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Abstract: Handling the multiple functions of monetary policy that protect the U.S. economy not only on a short term, but also long-term scale is a complicated responsibility assigned to Federal Reserve, in which their actions present a profound impact on consumer confidence towards financial markets and global economies. Specifically, one of the most important goals of the Federal Reserve is to mitigate the risk of the United States to enter a recession, while maintaining a balanced approach when making those policy decisions. In this thesis, we focus on the monetary policy of the Federal Reserve, particularly, their role in controlling interest rates to prevent recessionary sentiment in the current state of the economy. Since 2008, markets have been stronger and previous policies like Dodd-Frank have ensured that market collapses during the Great Recession do not repeat itself. Yet, fluctuations in the yield curve, polarizing investment views, and unsettled consumer confidence has pointed to another recession in the near future. In this case, we will look at the way the Fed has implemented short term policies to lower this risk in order to fight volatile markets, however, fluctuating interest rates has its consequences. The goal of this thesis is to analyze the various ways the Fed has managed interest rates in the past and present, and further, to offer a framework to serve as the most effective policy to combat volatility and recessionary sentiment in the U.S. economy.
ContributorsPatel, Dylan (Author) / Sacks, Jana (Thesis director) / Simonson, Mark (Committee member) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Women’s financial literacy and its translation into financial capability is becoming a pressing issue as women are living longer than men, while experiencing shorter employment periods, and lower incomes and benefits (Weir & Willis, 2000). More alarming is the lack of access to credible and trustworthy educational resources for women. Through a detailed analysis of the players in the women’s financial wellness sphere, many resource gaps were found to be present. Across prominent platforms, these issues were found (1) content was incorrectly conveyed to viewers, (2) presentation of the information was complex and/or confusing, and (3) the content was not visually appealing nor engaging.
In an environment of increasing connectivity due to the advent of 3G and 4G networks, and the increase in the number of users subscribing to social media platforms, it is an opportune time to utilize social media as an educational platform. With that being said, the goal of this project, the Sisterhood of Money (SOM), is to inform and educate women about essential financial topics. Using a variety of social media platforms such as Instagram, SOM intends to educate viewers with the help of aesthetically pleasing content that is engaging, informative, and easily digestible.
In an environment of increasing connectivity due to the advent of 3G and 4G networks, and the increase in the number of users subscribing to social media platforms, it is an opportune time to utilize social media as an educational platform. With that being said, the goal of this project, the Sisterhood of Money (SOM), is to inform and educate women about essential financial topics. Using a variety of social media platforms such as Instagram, SOM intends to educate viewers with the help of aesthetically pleasing content that is engaging, informative, and easily digestible.
ContributorsDeGravina, Gabrielle (Author) / Michael, Mokwa (Thesis director) / Eaton, John (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Over 50% of the US population has listened to a podcast as of 2019. That is over 144 million people in the US alone that can potentially generate revenue for a podcast host. In 2017, podcast advertising secured revenues of $314 million. It is expected to grow to $659 million by 2020 (Goldberg). There is a growing market of active podcast listeners for advertisers to tap into. There is so much potential in podcasting that Spotify has recently decided that they are willing to spend $400-500 million on this category alone in 2019. In that large figure they have acquired “Gimlet”, a podcasting company, for 230 million and “Anchor”, a creation/distribution platform (Heater).
These massive amounts of investment in podcasting is assuring for the podcast industry that began as recently as the early 2000’s. There is money to be made for the content creators of podcasts as well. This paper focuses on how podcast hosts can generate the most amount of money. The two forms of producing income is by paid advertisements or donations/crowdfunding. I conducted an experiment using my own podcast to test whether paid advertisements or donations were more effective at making money. My hypothesis for this experiment is if I offer a free podcast for the public to listen to and ask for donations then I think less than 10% of listeners will donate. I believe that paid advertisements will generate more revenue than donations because I believe podcast listeners are not generous enough to donate. My research on how to make the most money podcasting is illustrated in the following pages.
These massive amounts of investment in podcasting is assuring for the podcast industry that began as recently as the early 2000’s. There is money to be made for the content creators of podcasts as well. This paper focuses on how podcast hosts can generate the most amount of money. The two forms of producing income is by paid advertisements or donations/crowdfunding. I conducted an experiment using my own podcast to test whether paid advertisements or donations were more effective at making money. My hypothesis for this experiment is if I offer a free podcast for the public to listen to and ask for donations then I think less than 10% of listeners will donate. I believe that paid advertisements will generate more revenue than donations because I believe podcast listeners are not generous enough to donate. My research on how to make the most money podcasting is illustrated in the following pages.
ContributorsMaldonado, Marcus (Author) / Radway, Debra (Thesis director) / Bonfigilo, Thomas (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor, Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
This thesis provides an analysis of successful socially responsible management practices and company cultures to identify the required elements for proper cost internalization of manufacturing and service industries, as well as a more even wealth distribution throughout society for better consumption and sustainable long-term profits. For the purpose of this analysis, I have researched various companies that actively engage in the aforementioned features. The goal is to identify first steps necessary to transition corporate and private entities to a system where purchase power supersedes nominal currency numbers, such as being able to afford more for the same amount of USD than earning higher sums of USD to pay for the same product or service, thus ultimately creating stronger and more stable economies and currencies. To build such a framework, I have used various interdisciplinary concepts to present a solution for a more equitable system of accounting for value generation, and thus a system that aims at evening the wealth gap between populations.
By working on this thesis, I was able to identify causes that lead to inequality due to how manufacturing and service systems might account for costs, as well as solutions and concepts that can help pave the way for a more egalitarian society. Furthermore, through this study I have also discovered actors, namely benefit corporations, that actively partake in various actions to benefit not only their customers, but society as a whole. The causes, measurements, documents, and principles I looked at were company financial statements whenever available, various socially responsible management literature, accounting principles, research literature on the inequality of cost externalization, etc. These resources established that a proper plan to tackling the unsustainable business and financial practices of many corporate and private entities today involves a consumer-oriented vision that follows the triple bottom line, a mission that closely follow a vision, core company values that emphasize the need to serve society, and a plan to closely and efficiently follow through with said vision. Problems such as over reliance on limited resources and externalizing environmental costs due to intrinsically uncompetitive business models could be potentially mitigated with proper restructuring of business models. The triple bottom line is an accounting framework that incorporates the integral segments of social, environmental, and financial dimensions of performance. Lastly, it is worthwhile to mention that companies which successfully worked under this mantra and plan tend to be sustainable over longer periods of time and be more innovative than competitors, which ultimately lead to higher levels of goodwill and loyalty from their customers.
By working on this thesis, I was able to identify causes that lead to inequality due to how manufacturing and service systems might account for costs, as well as solutions and concepts that can help pave the way for a more egalitarian society. Furthermore, through this study I have also discovered actors, namely benefit corporations, that actively partake in various actions to benefit not only their customers, but society as a whole. The causes, measurements, documents, and principles I looked at were company financial statements whenever available, various socially responsible management literature, accounting principles, research literature on the inequality of cost externalization, etc. These resources established that a proper plan to tackling the unsustainable business and financial practices of many corporate and private entities today involves a consumer-oriented vision that follows the triple bottom line, a mission that closely follow a vision, core company values that emphasize the need to serve society, and a plan to closely and efficiently follow through with said vision. Problems such as over reliance on limited resources and externalizing environmental costs due to intrinsically uncompetitive business models could be potentially mitigated with proper restructuring of business models. The triple bottom line is an accounting framework that incorporates the integral segments of social, environmental, and financial dimensions of performance. Lastly, it is worthwhile to mention that companies which successfully worked under this mantra and plan tend to be sustainable over longer periods of time and be more innovative than competitors, which ultimately lead to higher levels of goodwill and loyalty from their customers.
ContributorsCinculescu, Andrei Stefan (Author) / Sadusky, Brian (Thesis director) / Hoffman, David (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
This study explores whether finance students at Arizona State University learn important technical business concepts at a textbook level and, if they do, do they recognize when to use them in real-world scenarios. These questions are important because the ability to learn and adapt knowledge to different situations is a desirable skill for a business professional. I chose NPV as the concept to test because it is arguably the central concept to learn in business school. Additionally, NPV is specifically taught in at least two courses by the time students graduate and it is frequently applied in business. The main hypothesis the study intends to explore is: students that have taken finance 300 will be able to identify the NPV problem. Survey results indicated that only 47% of students could identify the NPV problem. Further results indicated that only 27% of the original 100% (8 out of 30) participants could further apply NPV knowledge. Additional analyses based on grade earned and personal confidence level showed that having higher of either of the attributes generally showed the ability to identify NPV. Based on the results, I propose teaching more application-based learning to enhance career-readiness. Further research, expanding on these results, could be made to formulate a function to predict a student’s ability to identify NPV before being surveyed. This function could then be used to predict the outcome of the next student tested and allow for change to be made in teaching techniques.
ContributorsGomez, Andrew (Author) / Orpurt, Steven (Thesis director) / Hillegeist, Stephen (Committee member) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
The intent of this paper is inform and educate people on micro-investing, so they can better understand this new and growing category of investing. Given that micro-investing is a relatively new phenomenon, people naturally have many questions about it. What is micro-investing, and what makes it different from traditional investing? What are the origins of this growing segment of financial technology? What features and characteristics do micro-investing platforms have in common and what differentiates them from each other? Is micro-investing viable and cost effective, and if so, is it right for you? What is the future of micro-investing, and is it here to stay? This paper seeks to answer these questions and additional questions that the reader may have.
Contributorsde la Vara, Nicholas (Author) / Budolfson, Arthur (Thesis director) / Hoffman, David (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor, Contributor) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
The purpose of this thesis is to educate the reader and share the relevant areas of the United States and its ever-so unpredictable stock and real estate market. It will further detail, how investing in stocks can be beneficial or negative to one’s financial portfolio. This article explains and dissects the areas of the U.S. market and possibly dependent economy. The foundational definition and the basics of buying, selling and trading in the stock market is a very intricate process. There are various causes and concerns about how the stock market affects the economy and vice versa, how the economy affects the financial markets. As a theoretical framework, this topic will take a deep dive into the 2008 recession and the devastating effects it had on the global economy and financial markets. Furthermore, I will explain what steps the government took, the key decisions and incentives placed to pull itself out and what strategies and laws were passed to ensure that such a drastic crash would not repeat.
The goal of this thesis is to further educate the reader about the realities of the U.S stock market. Whether that be the risks or the benefits, it is important for every young adult and those that have invested in the past, to have extensive knowledge about how our stock market. It is true that the stock market affects the overall economy, however, it can be said that the economy has a significant effect on the stock market as well. Investing in the stock market is not something that Americans are forced to learn about, and many millennials have the, “Why should I care about that?” mindset when it comes to learning about the pros and cons of the Financial markets. This trend is very alarming because when done right, investing in the stock market can truly pay dividends. A cultural shift towards learning financial nuances should be incorporated in all education and more of the next generation should be educated and given this awareness. This article will not address the newer entrants such as crypto-currency, because that is more of a fad rather than a largescale market that would affect the overall economy.
The second goal with this thesis is to explain how the stock market affects the overall economy, as it is one of many significant factors. This goal may be slightly more difficult as there are so many variables in the US economy, such as changes in the global economy. One can also argue that the stock market is a supplement of the current economy. Addressing the financial markets and behavior, this conclusion will eventually address different variables and focus on the markets and how they affect the United States economy.
The goal of this thesis is to further educate the reader about the realities of the U.S stock market. Whether that be the risks or the benefits, it is important for every young adult and those that have invested in the past, to have extensive knowledge about how our stock market. It is true that the stock market affects the overall economy, however, it can be said that the economy has a significant effect on the stock market as well. Investing in the stock market is not something that Americans are forced to learn about, and many millennials have the, “Why should I care about that?” mindset when it comes to learning about the pros and cons of the Financial markets. This trend is very alarming because when done right, investing in the stock market can truly pay dividends. A cultural shift towards learning financial nuances should be incorporated in all education and more of the next generation should be educated and given this awareness. This article will not address the newer entrants such as crypto-currency, because that is more of a fad rather than a largescale market that would affect the overall economy.
The second goal with this thesis is to explain how the stock market affects the overall economy, as it is one of many significant factors. This goal may be slightly more difficult as there are so many variables in the US economy, such as changes in the global economy. One can also argue that the stock market is a supplement of the current economy. Addressing the financial markets and behavior, this conclusion will eventually address different variables and focus on the markets and how they affect the United States economy.
ContributorsPandya, Raveer (Author) / Sadusky, Brian (Thesis director) / Hoffman, David (Committee member) / Thunderbird School of Global Management (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
There is a growing demand for discrete graphics processing units (dGPU) in the internet of things. Our subject company, Company X, has decided to develop a dGPU to be used in client computing (desktops, laptops, etc). This project will address whether or not company X should invest time and money into adopting their existing client focused dGPU for applications in IoT such as digital signage, gaming, or medical imaging. If this investment is to be made, we will also make specific recommendations about how Company X should enter the IoT space. The project will be completed in 3 stages. The first stage will consist of an analysis of the competitive landscape and research on dGPUs and how they differ from integrated GPUs. Stage two will focus primarily on the IoT space and how the competitors are using dGPUs in the IoT along with an analysis of three potential use cases for Company X’s dGPU. Finally, we will build a comprehensive financial model based on our research of one specific IoT segment where Company X could potentially enter. Based on these stages, we will then offer a conclusion and recommendation on whether Company X should invest in this project.
ContributorsNickel, Jack Peter (Co-author) / Bergauer, Kevin (Co-author) / Morey, Jake (Co-author) / Nickel, Jack (Co-author) / Sethia, Priyanka (Co-author) / Smith, Jesse (Co-author) / Simonson, Mark (Thesis director) / Kreutner, Caleb (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05